Stretched or framed pictures are now commonplace and in demand. Conventionally, art studios and sign shops perform a labor intensive process, which includes many detailed steps, to produce stretched or framed pictures of printed art work. These steps include initially printing the art work on a paper, cloth or similar substrate, cutting the substrate to appropriate size, mounting the substrate, and laminating or stretching the substrate on a frame. In the case of lamination, specialized and expensive heaters are required, and heating and cooling times can be significant. In the case of stretchers, significant skill, effort and time is required to form the stretcher frame of required size and shape and to sufficiently position the substrate on the frame. These conventional activities can result in longer turnaround times, lower production capacity and possibly great waste, all of which lead to high costs and extensive steps and processes.
Other conventional techniques include printing the artwork on paper, aligning the paper on a rigid substrate, and then applying high heat (e.g., on the order of 400° F.) and pressure via a heat press. The high heat from the heat press can transfer the artwork to the rigid substrate. The process, however, is time and effort consuming for printing to the paper and heating and cool down for the transfer. Moreover, a sufficient heat press for the transfer is a costly equipment. Even more, the types of rigid substrates that may be employed are limited to those which can withstand the high temperatures involved. This precludes a wide variety of possible rigid substrates, such as acrylic glass or others.
It would therefore be an improvement in the art and technology to provide ink receptive layers to rigid substrates for inkjet printing directly on wide varieties and types of the rigid substrates.